Adam Schefter is reporting that Tim Tebow suffered the following injuries early in the third quarter of Saturday's loss at New England:

Tebow tore cartilage on his first rib where it attaches to his sternum, bruised his lung and had fluid buildup in the plural space of his chest

Three Four reactions:

We knew this already, but it bears repeating: Tebow is a tough bastard.

The culmination of all of Tebow's rushing attempts and sacks was bound to levy a toll on his body, and his ribs were the most likely location of such an injury.

Should he have remained in the game? Granted, it was largely over before halftime, but is an injured Tebow better than a healthy Brady Quinn in a playoff game where there is no next week without a victory?

This is another reason why the Broncos must de-emphasize Tebow's role in the running game, no matter how tough and strong he may be. His style of play invites contact, and outside the pocket he will not receive QB-specific protections from officials, and sometimes even within the pocket, as shown by the multiple facemask non-calls we all witnessed this season.

Good Morning, Broncos fans! According to Jason La Canfora's latest update, Mike McCoy and Miami interim coach Todd Bowles are the finalists for the Dolphins head job, although Adam Schefter is hearing that Packers OC Joe Phlbin will also get a second meeting (and interview with the Bucs too); Bengals DC Mike Zimmer had been in the mix earlier. Additionally, John Clayton says the Colts will look to hire an offensive-minded HC after firing Jim Caldwell yesterday, and he says McCoy could be a candidate for Indy. Of course, McCoy will also meet with new Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie today, as will Dennis Allen.

Now, the Broncos offense next season will probably be dissimilar to the one we saw this year with Tim Tebow; not only did opposing defenses appear to figure out the zone read, but the big hits on Tebow seemed to multiply with each passing week - and as Phil Simms pointed out, the defenses that saw Tebow a second time this season didn't have trouble containing him. As has been mentioned countless times, most notably by John Elway, Tebow is going to have to learn to win games from the pocket, and that is likely to be reflected in the offensive structure going forward. And as Ryan Wilson notes in his final Tracking Tebow column of the season,

If the organization is truly committed to him (and we're not convinced they are long term) then that means building the entire offense around one person, right down to a backup quarterback proficient at running Tebow's brand of option football.

If it seems extreme, think of it this way: what happens if Tebow goes down? Denver's offense suddenly reverts to its pre-Tebow playbook? And the remaining starters -- all of whom have spent months practicing the option offense, will suddenly be expected to run a conventional offense? In the middle of a game? That ain't happening.

What we don't know--how 32 teams passed Harris over for seven rounds in the draft last year.

Perhaps it's due to the fact that Harris is five feet, nine inches tall. Perhaps it's because he didn't play in the SEC. Perhaps it's because this guy had him as the 48th best cornerback coming out. Whatever the reason, it just goes to prove that nobody knows anything when it comes to the NFL draft, a league where 1st-round picks bust with regularity and undrafted free agents are named Defensive Player of the Year.

Per Adam Schefter, the Miami Dolphins plan to interview Mike McCoy a second time. The interview will take place on Thursday in New York. This time, Miami owner Stephen Ross will be sitting in. Why so serious, Miami?

According to the guy I used to shove into a locker John Clayton, this means McCoy has a great chance of landing the job.

Plus, the Broncos have promoted Matt Russell from director of college scouting to director of player personnel, and they hired former Yale OC/QB coach Brian Stark as their West Coast scout.

According to Jason La Canfora, Oakland has scheduled an interview with Denver OC Mike McCoy for their head coaching vacancy tomorrow. McCoy already met with the Dolphins yesterday regarding their HC opening, and the Bucs are also rumored to have interest in McCoy.

Meanwhile, longtime Denver strength and conditioning coach Rich Tuten has been told he will not be back for the 2012 season. Tuten had been the Broncos strength coach since Mike Shanahan's first year as head coach, 1995.

Former Broncos T Mike Current was found dead this morning at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, killed by an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Denver selected Current in the third round (58th overall) of the 1967 Draft out of Ohio State; he went on to play in 169 NFL games in 13 seasons, spending nine of those years with the Broncos. He made the Pro Bowl as a Bronco in 1969, and he also played for the Dolphins and Buccaneers.

Current, who was 66, had become an author in his post-playing days, and he wrote a memoir of his career titled Rememberin'...Life in the Trenches. Our thoughts at IAOFM go out to Current's family and friends. (via DP)

Good Morning, Broncos fans! By now, everyone knows John Elway stated yesterday that Tim Tebow will be the Broncos starting QB entering training camp; the Worldwide Leader probably still has this breaking "news" in its crawl right now. Of course, they won't mention that it was a choice between Tebow and Adam Weber, who spent the season off the 53-man roster (instead on the practice squad, where any team could have nabbed him) and was signed to a future contract yesterday.

Dave Krieger agrees that John Elway struck the proper tone with his lukewarm endorsement of Tebow, and he sees a man in Elway who's the right man for the job of running the Broncos. Les Carpenter thought Elway was praising Tebow through huge, clenched teeth, while Doug Farrar oddly accepted it all at face value and thinks Elway has found a kindred spirit in Tebow.

But Will Brinson has it right: who on Earth will choose to sign with Denver with the intention of winning a QB competition, especially since he'd be shackled with "the most unfriendly homefield circumstances in NFL history" were he to win the job? After all, the drumbeat in Denver for Jay Cutler and Tebow reduced Jake Plummer and Kyle Orton to mistake-prone klutzes, respectively. What, Matt Flynn or Jason Campbell is going to hold up better? About the only guy who might be available and could withstand Tebowmania is Peyton Manning.

Everyone has hopes, and Broncos fans had seen some fairly remarkable things this year, but there are truths in life. One is that trying to stop Tom Brady in Foxborough in the playoffs is nearly impossible. The other is that Denver hasn’t gotten quite as far as the Patriots have as a team yet, and they got to find that out pretty quickly. They managed three points not related to an early Brady turnover. Brady tied the all-time NFL record for TD passes in a playoff game (with Daryle Lamonica and Steve Young, five of them coming in the first half).

Let’s face facts, though - Every team but one ends with a loss. Late in the year, with the secondary playing rookies and practice squad guys, the team still made it to the divisional round of the playoffs. I had a great time for at least part of nearly every game. I had a great time for all of some of them. And if anyone says that this season doesn’t improve on 4-12, they’re lying.

Today's press conference was pretty much what we expected--full of positive energy and questions about the future of Tim Tebow.

Elway made about as much of a commitment to Tebow as he probably could. Getting right to the heart of the issue, Elway said: "Tim's earned the right to be the starting quarterback going into camp next year."

Elway later say he "hoped" Tebow was going to be the franchise guy. He also said the Broncos would bring in other quarterbacks (he implied through free agency) to compete for the job. I liked his answer to the question about whether free agents would come here with Tebowmania: "If he's afraid to come in and compete for that job, maybe he's not the right guy."

I wish the beat writers had asked specific questions about the style of offense the Broncos would be running in the future, but the Broncos' draft and free-agent pickups will speak louder than anything they could have said today.

Elway probably did what any of us would have done in the same situation--dip your toe into the Tebow waters as far as you can while keeping your options open as you try to improve at every position. It sure makes for an interesting offseason of speculation.

Meanwhile, it's expected that in a news conference today John Elway, Brian Xanders and John Fox will declare that Tebow is their starting QB for 2012. But considering that Brady Quinn is an unrestricted free agent and Adam Weber is on the practice squad, there's not really anything else they can say, no matter their intentions - Tebow is the only quarterback under contract for next season. Even if they do plan to build around Tebow and are fond of Weber, the team has to acquire two quarterbacks between now and the beginning of training camp, whether via free agency or the draft. And anything but outwardly unequivocal organizational support for Tebow for at least the next six months would be shock-inducing foolishness on the FO's part - so expect plenty of Tebow certainty out of EFX until camp begins. It's their only option.